DOJ Tipped Clinton to Email Investigation, Leak Shows

(CN) — An official with the U.S. Justice Department leaked information to Hillary Clinton’s campaign about an upcoming congressional investigation of her email server, according to Wikileaks’ latest revelations. In an email to Clinton campaign chief John Podesta on May 19, 2015, Assistant Attorney General Peter J. Kadzik tipped the campaign off starting with the subject line “Heads up.” “There is a [House Judiciary Committee] oversight hearing today where the head of our civil division will testify. Likely to get questions on State Department emails,” Kadzik wrote. In the same email, Kadzik also updated Podesta on a Freedom of Information Act case that was ongoing. “Another filing in the FOIA case went in last night or will go in this a.m. that indicates it will be a while (2016) before the State Department posts the emails,” he said. Kadzik’s relationship with Podesta dates back to their time as law students at Georgetown University. In an email revealed in a previous release by Wikileaks, Podesta said of Kadzik, “Fantastic lawyer. Kept me out of jail.” Kadzik is now involved in a new investigation stemming from Clinton’s private email servers, this one focusing on top Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s emails. Abedin’s emails were recovered on the laptop of her estranged husband, former Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner, during a separate investigation into Weiner’s activities. In order to address concerns over a potential conflict of interest, Kadzik sent a letter to a handful of congressional leaders on Monday promising that the Justice Department would help the FBI in its probe of Abedin’s emails. “The Department of Justice appreciates the concerns raised in your letter. We assure you that the department will continue to work closely with the FBI and together, dedicate all necessary resources and take appropriate steps as expeditiously as possible,” Kadzik wrote, according to Politico. But besides Kadzik’s close relationship with Podesta, he has also worked with or for multiple Clinton associates. He worked a lawyer for Marc Rich, a former hedge-fund trader and close friend of the Clintons who was indicted on several counts of tax evasion in 1983. Rich was pardoned by President Bill Clinton on his last day in office, a controversial move given donations made by Rich’s ex-wife, Denise Rich, that included a $450,000 donation to Bill Clinton’s presidential library foundation and more than $100,000 to Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign. Kadzik has also donated to multiple Clinton campaigns and other pro-Hillary organizations. Adding to Wednesday’s revelations, the Clinton campaign is still dealing with the FBI’s release on Monday of heavily redacted files on the Clinton Foundation and Clinton’s pardon of Rich. Other emails released by Wikileaks Wednesday had nothing to do with the Clintons, however. Instead, they showed President Barack Obama’s transition team discussing “secure data rooms” for sharing information, which Google helped set up. “Regarding policy promises, from now on, we’ll email out the first drafts when they’re done, but we won’t email out revisions. The latest version will always be stored in the “general” data room,” Obama aide Chris Lu wrote in early September 9, 2008. Lu also mentioned the security measures the team was using to protect the information. “The one thing you should know is that contrary to the login instructions, we’re not giving out ‘transition2008.com’ email addresses,” he wrote. “We think that would compromise our ability to keep this whole enterprise under wraps.”